Mordred—like Lancelot before her—had once been a knight of the Round Table, personally gathered by the Knight King, Artoria.
Yet due to a chain of extraordinary circumstances, she ultimately turned against the Knight King. Their conflict culminated on the Hill of Camlann, where the two of them struck each other down and died together.
Mordred also bore a surname: Pendragon.Though that name was never officially acknowledged, there was no denying the truth—she carried genuine royal blood. She was both the Knight King's illegitimate child and her nephew.
As for how such a twisted lineage came to be, the answer lay in the fact that Mordred was no ordinary human. She was, in essence, a constructed being—what modern magi would call a clone.
She was the legendary illegitimate child of the Knight King, born not from love, but from sorcery. Morgan, the elder sister of Artoria, had used magic to deceive Artoria—who ruled while disguised as a man—harvested her essence, and nurtured it within her own body. Thus, Mordred was born.
Morgan relentlessly instilled in Mordred the idea that she should seize the throne and replace the king. Ironically, Mordred herself had little interest in such ambitions. Instead, she longed for Artoria—the "father" she adored above all else. That longing drove her to join the Round Table Knights, fighting at Artoria's side.
When Mordred eventually learned the truth of her birth, she was not horrified—she was exhilarated.The one she had admired all her life… was her own parent.
But when she confessed everything to Artoria, what awaited her was rejection.
That refusal shattered her.
From that moment on, Mordred walked a path directly opposed to the Knight King.
In Mordred's heart, there was only one explanation for her rejection:It wasn't just because she was an "impure" existence—it was because she wasn't good enough.
So she resolved to defeat the Knight King whose name echoed across history.To surpass the father she had always admired.To prove—once and for all—that she was superior.
Because she was born from an "unacceptable" origin, Mordred had always been painfully sensitive about her bloodline.
And so, when the golden Archer spat out that single word—
"Mongrels."
—it struck directly at the deepest taboo in her heart.
Her outburst was inevitable.
With A-rank Mana Burst, combined with her already formidable magical reserves, the slash she unleashed was no mere sword strike. Its power rivaled that of a B-rank Noble Phantasm.
But to Koganemaru—the golden Archer (known in records as Gilgamesh, hereafter operating under a modern alias befitting the system's era)—this was little more than a nuisance.
As the massive arc of magical energy came crashing down, he merely raised one hand.
Layer upon layer of circular, translucent barriers bloomed into existence before him.
"Seven Rings of the Seraphim."
Among the countless treasures stored within the King of Heroes' vault, this was one of the rare defensive Noble Phantasms—and the strongest among them.
Each of the seven rings was as thin as cicada wings, yet every layer possessed astonishing defensive power. More terrifying still, their durability increased with each ring. The final layers rivaled the walls of ancient fortresses.
Mordred's overwhelming slash struck the rings head-on, whipping up a violent storm of wind and mana across the battlefield.
Yet despite its ferocity, the attack shattered only the first three rings.
No further.
Seeing her strike fail, the berserk Mordred was already preparing to release her Noble Phantasm—intent on erasing that arrogant Archer from existence—
when suddenly—
A shrill whistle tore through the night sky.
An arrow ripped through the darkness, flying toward the battlefield at blinding speed.
There was no mistaking it.
This was long-range support from the Blue Faction's Archer—Emiya, operating under the system's concealment protocols.
Due to the extreme distance, the power of the Spiral Sword would inevitably be reduced.But even weakened, it was still an A-rank projected Noble Phantasm.
The arrow's trajectory did not target Mordred.Nor did it aim for Koganemaru, who had just fought Ren Kuroda moments earlier.
Instead—
It was headed straight for the Red Faction's Assassin, whose presence had been negligible from the very start.
As a Servant who possessed detailed knowledge of the Fourth Grail Conflict, Emiya knew that if he was going to intervene, he needed to strike where it would hurt the most.
Mordred was an unknown variable to him—but anyone summoned as a Saber was never weak.
As for Koganemaru, Emiya understood his strength all too well. In fact, much of Emiya's own combat style was modeled after him. The Spiral Sword would never pierce the Seven Rings' defense.
The same applied to most of the other Servants present.
At extreme range, the Spiral Sword simply lacked the firepower to seriously threaten them.
So, to throw the battlefield into chaos—and give Ren Kuroda a chance to escape—Emiya chose the softest target.
The Red Faction's Assassin.
Known in legend as the Old Man of the Mountain—here recorded under the Japanese alias Yamanaka no Okina.
No one had ever seen his true face. Whether he was an old man, a child, or a woman remained unknown.
Over time, "Hassan" ceased to be a name and became a title—symbolizing one who had reached the pinnacle of assassination.
Hassan was no stranger to Grail Wars. In fact, he was among the most frequently summoned Servants, almost always appearing as Assassin.
Because his appearance changed with each summoning, the abilities he possessed also varied.
The strongest was undoubtedly the First Hassan himself.
This time, however, the summoned Assassin was Hundred Faces.
"Hundred Faces" was… how should one put it—
Assassins were already not known for overwhelming power, but this one was an extreme case.
Individually, even the weakest Assassin was still a Servant.
But Hundred Faces was less a single being and more a collective. His Noble Ability allowed him to split into numerous independent entities, each with its own mind and form.
With his already-limited mana divided among them, their individual strength plummeted. Some were so weak that even a moderately skilled mage could defeat them.
Watching the Spiral Sword scream toward him, the Red Faction's Assassin felt utterly cursed.
He had stayed on the sidelines this entire time, quietly observing.
And yet—he still got hit?
Still, complaints aside, the mana radiating from the incoming arrow made one thing clear: he couldn't block it head-on.
Without hesitation, Hundred Faces activated his innate ability—sacrificing one clone as a decoy while the true body retreated to a safe distance.
BOOOOOOM—!
A thunderous explosion shook the night.
The Spiral Sword engulfed one of Hundred Faces' clones on impact, forming an inverted bowl of blazing energy on the ground.
The sudden attack put Tokiomi Tohsaka and the others on high alert. Some even suspected that Blue Faction reinforcements had arrived.
And then—
Amid the chaos caused by Emiya's arrow, synchronized footsteps echoed from the ground.
Medea's Dragon Tooth Soldiers had finally arrived.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of skeletal warriors flooded the battlefield, sealing off every escape route.
To the Red Faction, these constructs were nothing more than disposable magical creations.
But after so many sudden disruptions, they hesitated.
The arrow earlier had clearly come from Archer.And this many constructs could only mean Caster.
With the Dragon Tooth Soldiers swarming in, the Red Faction Servants no longer had the luxury of continuing their pursuit of Ren Kuroda. One by one, they regrouped around their Masters.
Of course—
The rampaging Mordred and the arrogant Koganemaru were exceptions.
Ignoring the soldiers entirely, the two clashed head-on, sparks and mana exploding with every exchange.
Seeing the reinforcements and the Spiral Sword's diversion, Ren Kuroda quietly reined in the demonic power he had been preparing to unleash.
Moments earlier, through the link between Master and Servant, Medea had sent him a message.
The Blue Faction had done everything they could.
This was the limit.
She urged Ren to seize the moment—use the Dragon Tooth Soldiers to buy time and withdraw while the Red Faction hesitated.
"If this is just a feint, it's honestly pretty sloppy," Iskandar muttered as he charged through the battlefield atop his divine chariot, The Wheel of Divine Might. Beside him sat his "beloved consort," Waver.
Lightning crackled around the thunder bulls pulling the chariot as they plowed through the Dragon Tooth Soldiers.
Iskandar steered with one hand and smashed skeletons apart with the other, laughing as he did.
As a conqueror of history, Iskandar's greatest strength lay not merely in personal combat—but in leadership and warfare.
At first, he'd assumed Blue Faction was launching a full-scale assault on the very first night.
But after assessing the soldiers' strength—and noting the absence of other Servants—he quickly realized the truth.
This was a diversion.
And just as he suspected—
While everyone was busy dealing with the magical constructs, no one noticed that Ren Kuroda was already gone.
Had the Red Faction been united, even an intrusion like this wouldn't have allowed Ren to escape.
But instead, their internal state was worse than Blue Faction's.
Saber was completely fixated on fighting Archer.And when Kariya Matou saw someone attacking Tokiomi Tohsaka, he even ordered Berserker to assault Koganemaru.
Mordred and Lancelot—Berserker—were both knights of the Round Table.And among them, the two most skilled in combat.
Even a top-tier Servant like Koganemaru found himself hard-pressed when facing two mad knights at once.
Though he didn't fall behind—
All he could do was sneer, hurling curses of "mongrels" as steel and madness closed in on him.